Stage Directions is a programme of theatre making for Children and Young People living in Salford, aged between 8 – 18 and whom didn’t have access to theatre making, cultural experiences or had considered a career within the arts. Led by the Salford Cultural Education Partnership and housed at The Lowry, the programme brought together leading arts experts and companies to work alongside children and young people in both formal and informal settings to explore high quality theatre making. In addition, there was energy placed to support new and early career artists to develop their skills alongside professional development for education, community professionals and artists.  

Stage Directions

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The Youth Performance Partnership Fund was a three-year programme delivered and led by five Local Cultural Education Partnerships (LCEPs) across England which, aimed to create developmental performance experiences for young people, enable new talent to be supported and developed, and to create more equitable access (Co-Creation) to the creative arts, particularly focusing on areas of high disadvantage and low engagement. In March 2019, five areas across England (Croydon, Derby, Medway, Plymouth and Salford) were each awarded £1 million to deliver a programme of engagement characterised by strong co-creation elements with children and young people. Over the course of three academic years, each area aimed to reach over 2,000 children and young people through new and dynamic theatre making projects. Youth Performance Partnerships linked schools and community groups with leading cultural organisations, helping young people to engage with dance, drama, music and theatre in areas where they lack opportunities to get involved in the arts. Funded through the Department for Digital, Culture Media and Sports (DCMS) and Arts Council England (ACE) the programme aimed to enable Children and Young People to engage with both On-stage and Off-stage provision led by high quality artists. 

This piece of work has been collated, curated and developed by Lee Brennan who was Stage Directions Programme Manager July 2019-July 2020. Lee initiated the work of bringing together the national programmes and inviting guest speakers to the discussion groups. Lee was later asked as a freelance consultant to return to the work in order to develop & publish this piece and the principles in this form. 

Rationale

From the outset Arts Council England were explicit in co-creation functioning as a key artery within the YPPF application process and wanted to understand how it would feature within the delivery plan, for all of the 5 pilot programmes. Very quickly, the Stage Directions programme team identified that dialogue and terminology was interchangeable with other methodologies not only on a National level, but also locally with partners and colleagues. This led us to begin an internal dialogue around defining co-creation for ourselves which prompted a richer opportunity to begin a National Conversation around this very thing. We challenged ourselves to plant the seed and nurture a cohort of all the YPPF partners, leading International voices, young leaders and representatives from other sectors to join a forum to explore the possibility of defining a number of guiding principles for Co-Creation.
 
When the 5 National Pilot Programmes came together to provide an insight into their programme design, it became very clear that the approaches, experiences and understanding of co-creation was slightly different region to region. Collectively we acknowledged that in part this was due to the changing landscape to redirect energy to work in this was and allowing ourselves  space to explore new approaches when creating a programme which focuses on co-creation. In addition the need to be mindful of the geographical differences from programme to programme from very rural to inner city environments, differences in the way artists would facilitate co-created work which all came to the forefront in those early discussions. We have to appreciate that all of the variations and starting positions are equally valid from the outset, before we got into the meat of any conversation ensuring each voice and contribution is equally balanced. 

Some of the terminology which was interchangeable from project to project:

• Co-Creation
• Co-Produced / Production
• Co-Designed
• Co-Curated
• Co-Commissioned
• Consultation
• Socially Engaged Practice
• Participatory Practice
• Autonomous Engagement
• Applied Theatre
• Sociocracy
• Community Arts

 
Each of the above has a place and value when working with children, young people and communities to create new theatre, but we also acknowledge that due to no clear definition ‘co-creation’ is the term often used to describe the above approaches.
 
Also, a key piece of information, is that this national conversation wasn’t undertaken in isolation from the other amazing work and dialogue happening up and down the country. We’d encourage you to take a look at the following organisations and work happening in addition to this: (Hyperlinks to each of the following pages)

• Co-Creating Change Network
• Considering Co-Creation (Arts Council England, Battersea Arts Centre and Heart of Glass)
• Collective Encounters – Open Space
• Creative People and Places Programmes

 
Co-Creation Definition
‘a way of working together where people from different backgrounds are invited to jointly produce a product or service that will benefit all of them’ [MacMillian Dictionary]
 
As a process, co-creation was initiated by the corporate sector, to enable a broad range of stakeholders to engage as problem solvers / co-designers of new products and services. By the language and terminology used we can begin to recognise the shared values across both sectors and they then align naturally to the work of theatre making practices with communities and education settings, and possibly why the phase has been coined by the creative sector.
 
Please see a snap shot history of Co-Creation within the Corporate Sector here.

The Journey

Within the first few months of the YPP programme, the concept of initiating a conversation around guiding principles of co-creation began internally at The Lowry met with unanimous approval of Stage Directions taking the lead, Salford CEP committed support and resource to begin the journey. Both Lee Brennan and Steph Green (Programme Managers for Stage Directions) started to scope out the feasibility of delivering this alongside a dynamic programme of activity happening across the city of Salford. It was felt that the forum needed to be representative of each of the programmes, the wider creative sector whilst also welcoming outside influence to mobilise the discussion in a lively and fruitful way.
 
Each quarter, staff from each of the YPP programmes and local evaluators came together to provide learning, insight and challenges each of the pilots faced. This was co-facilitated by Arts Council England and BOP Consultancy (National Evaluators) and Stage Directions proposed the opportunity to everyone present; again, everyone in the room identified the need for such a discussion to take place. Here is where the kicker lands that delayed the development and drive for this to happen… COVID!
 
When the sector started to resume activity and the YPP pilots were able to lead the work in a way that they initially planned, it was time to press the button to revisit and mobilise the conversation on co-creation.
 
The end of 2020 brought together the first meeting of professionals to explore the format, structure and approach for the ‘YPPF Focus Group’, whilst also having an eye on what we wanted to achieve through this work and the potential audience (YOU) with whom it will be shared. Collectively we agreed on the following shape: 

Who was sat around the table?
It was clear the process needed to be driven by someone independent, without bias, to lead the conversation and hold the space in a safe and mindful way. Stage Directions approached Caz Brader, who brought many years of skilled facilitation to the table and it was agreed the process would take the form of ORID a focused conversation method, developed by the Institution of Cultural Affairs. (See Additional Information here)

Each session had a cohort that attended all sessions, these were representative of each of the YPP Programmes, including the Programme Manager, local evaluators, an artist who was delivering activity relating to the programme and young leaders / trainees. In addition to the above each session invited an individual / organisation that could present their work, approach around co-creation relating to the session topic:

• Session One: Defining Co-Creation                Speaker: Francois Matarasso
• Session Two: Why this approach?                   Speaker: Sarah Blowers & Nina Hajiyianni
• Session Three: How do you co-create            Speaker: Evie Manning & Chris Gorry
• Session Four: The Impact                                 Speaker: Stella Toonen
• Session Five: Consensus Session

 
Each presenter had approx. 30 Mins to share their thinking and then also join the wider conversation with all of the focus group. To note, the sessions were a provocation to unpick how the principles may present themselves, rather than the principles being based on the contributions from each of the speakers. To request access to the recorded discussions, please email: steph.green@thelowry.com  

‘Stage Directions’ infrastructure is a partnership project which is strategically answerable to the Salford Cultural Education Partnership. Working across such a wide breadth of partners & professionals means that Stage Directions is formed of many voices, ideas, organisations and drivers. In light of this, we were dedicated to zooming into the work of co-creation within practical sessions, classroom time, practitioner and programme planning which had a direct impact and relation to our work with young people in schools.
Together, the 5 YPPF programmes had contrasting visions with the commonality of theatre making with children in schools. Whilst our delivery might have different structures, it was important to create a framework for practitioners, teachers, programme leaders, schools and organisations to use. We were conscious to ensure that programme leaders, administrators and even funders had accountability in the co-creation process as well as the leaders ‘in the room’.
Stage Directions values are centred around the mantra ‘everyone is an expert’. Our delivery, development and strategy hold that as the paramount ethic. Through this we acknowledge that every person in every room from meetings to classrooms; training to rehearsals- every stakeholder has expertise they are constantly growing, transferring and receiving in all interactions. These interactions all happen around the shared purpose of delivering our programme outcomes and ensure that every person is seen, feels accountable and enjoys being part of Stage Directions.’
​                                                                     (Steph Green – Programme Manager, Stage Directions)

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